• Editor Rating
  • Rated 4 stars
₹7999
  • 80%

  • Meizu M3s Review
  • Reviewed by:
  • Published on:
  • Last modified: Dec 8, 2019

Meizu M3s is the latest offering by Chinese phone maker Meizu. M3s has a smaller display than M3 note i.e. 5inch and comes in two variants i.e. (2GB RAM+16GB) priced at Rs.7,999 and (3GB RAM+32GB) for Rs.9,299. At this price range, the phone directly competes with Xiaomi’s Redmi 3S Prime which is priced at Rs 8,999. The one we are reviewing here is 2GB variant device with 16GB of internal memory.

Meizu M3S Review: Design and Build Quality

Meizu M3s has almost similar design as that of M3 note and one among the few which comes with a full metal exterior as this price range. The matte finishes around the edges and weighing only 138g makes it quite handy for daily usage.

One thing which I really liked in this device is the fingerprint sensor placement at the front rather than on the back. This small change increases the ease of usage by a good number. It’s easier to unlock a phone using a thumb rather than a finger on back. Another good thing about this fingerprint sensor that it works as the Home button as well as the back button. Long press on the button makes it work as Home button and swiping in any direction over the sensor make it act as a back button. Because of such gestures, overall time reduces a lot in doing any task on the phone.

Meizu M3s has a unibody design and is made of 6000 series aluminum alloy. The front is dominated by a 2.5D curved glass along with the camera, earpiece, and sensors above the display.

The rear has antenna bands running along at top and bottom which has become a norm these days with metal phones. The primary camera is placed at center along with dual LED flash placed below at camera sensor. Below that, there’s MEIZU logo embossed.

At the left, there’s a master slot for inserting 2 SIM cards and 1 microSD card,

while at right there are volume rockers and power button.

The 3.5mm audio jack is placed on top and a microUSB port for charging and data transfer is provided at the bottom.

Overall, the matte finish on the device with rounded edges fits well in hand and feels like a solid device. Because of a 5inch sized display, the device was easily usable with one hand, and the physical home button was easily reachable with our thumb.

Meizu M3S Review: Display

With a screen resolution of 1280 x 720p, the phone has a 5.5inch sized HD display which is at par with Redmi 3s Prime. Color reproduction and display brightness is good, and overall impression of the display is fine.

We didn’t have any issue using the phone in a good amount of sunlight, and the display visibility was good even from some odd angles. Like a higher priced range smartphone, Meizu M3s also allows users to modify the color temperature of the screen; that means you can modify the display tone to warm when reading under low light and move back to normal or Vivid while watching a video during the daytime.

Meizu M3s Review: Software

The device was launched with Flyme OS, a custom UI which is based on Android (5.1) Lollipop, an old OS considering that the phone nowadays are launched with Marshmallow at least. Hence, it can be said that an official update is due from the brand, which might come in upcoming months.

There are very few pre-installed apps which are rather surprising because every brand at least pre-install Gmail, Maps and Photos. However, you’ll find Play Store and Google app from Google, and there are other apps like themes, video, music, etc. and there are no bloatware apps.

Except the gestures on the fingerprint sensor, swiping down on display pull down the notification center and swiping up opens universal search. Flyme OS also supports floating apps, like you can resize calculator app and keep it floating above other apps for quick usage. Not all apps support floating as of now.

Meizu M3s Review: Performance

Powered by MediaTek MT7650 octa-core processor with 2GB of RAM, the phone is capable of handling most tasks and can comfortably run some graphic intensive games like Need for Speed, etc. without any heating issues. Switching between apps is smooth, although you might see a bit of delay while switching back to any heavy app, but that doesn’t ruin the user experience.

You can run 2 SIM along with microSD card up to 256GB capacity which is quite a surprise. The phone battery capacity is 3020mAh which is enough to last a day when being used as a primary device.

Meizu M3s Review: Camera

With a 13 megapixel camera, the phone took good images while being outdoor, while indoor images were just fine. Similar case applies with the front camera as well, as indoor, it was not much of use, while being outdoor; it managed to take some nice selfies.

The good thing about the camera is, it offers manual mode along with Auto, and there are some other cool modes like Beauty, Paranoma, Light field, Slow-mo, scan, and Gif. The camera also offers live filters, so you can click monochrome images as well directly without requiring any editing.

Final Verdict

For a price of Rs 7999, Meizu M3s is a value for money device, but unfortunately, it has to compete with likes of Redmi3s Prime or even LeEco Le1s. While Meizu M3s does well in customizing software part for an enhanced user experience, it does have to face stiff competition in spec driven market. However, I’ll prefer to select this device over Redmi3s Prime because of better after sales services than Xiaomi.

An optimist to the core, I always see the glass half full. I like to take life as it comes and not to become too serious on the harsher aspects of it. Apart from this, I am an Engineer, a Blogger & a Researcher....

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